Chasing Daylight...

"Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might same some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings." 1 Corinthians 9:19-23

After traveling for 36+ hours, I am glad to finally announce my team's arrival in Sydney, Australia! The trip over was quite eventful for us in many different ways. We flew from ATL to LAX, only to have a 6 hour layover in the smallest terminal ever. There were two restaurants, a Burger King and some seafood restaurant. While waiting around, we got to talking to an Aussie named Will who was coming back from visiting his sister in NYC. He informed me that I dressed "bogan" which means bum or redneck in Aussie language... I would have taken offense to that, but I really couldn't argue because I was in fact wearing my brother's flannel shirt. Haha. The 14 hour flight was super awesome. The TV's on our seats had some chatroom function where you could chat seat-to-seat... NEVER have I ever experienced something so innovative! You could even play Battleship versus another seat. I do have an interesting fact... I did not watch one movie while traveling. I slept the first 7 hours of that flight, took a couple laps around the plane cabin, and then slept some more. It was epic. While exercising around the plane, one of my teammates and I got to talking with a Aussie native named Chris who was very entertaining. She informed us that everything in Australia can indeed kill you. What a relief, huh? It feels so surreal to finally be in the city that I've been talking about for so long. I mean, I am located halfway across the world right now from everything familiar. Our view from the apartment is likely the most incredible view ever of Hyde Park... if you click the link, it is the exact view. To our surprise, everything is much more expensive here. We went into a grocery store near our apartment and i think a half gallon was priced at $6... but then again, the minimum wage here is much higher than in the states. We discovered that a waitress working here earns more than a teacher back in the states. If you didn't know, the roads are backwards than in the states so instead of looking from left to right, you look right to left... if you do the first, you will most likely turn into roadkill. Let's just say the past two days have been quite eventful for us!


The time here is 13 hours ahead of American time so as I'm writing this post, it is 4:03 AM there and 7:03 PM here. I was so tired yesterday... jet lag hits hard when you travel this far; I am quite certain of it. Upon arriving and pulling our bags in our 11th story apartment room, we hit the town for a quick sightseeing adventure. We drove to one part of the Botanical Gardens that gave us a beautiful view of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge. We, then, continued on over to the actual Sydney Opera House steps and walked around the harbor a little bit. My camera happened to break (as in not keeping any of the pictures I took) so that's kind of a buzz kill, but I decided to mooch off of other people's photog opportunities like these pictures you see now. We ended up going on a food shopping trip, finding out everything costs a leg and an arm, so we didn't purchase much except for peanut butter and jelly. Haha. I am not kidding. The peanut butter tastes much different here. The kind we got was a little lighter than usual with a weird aftertaste, BUT we looked at the ingredients and it's much healthier than we're used to (probably describes the weird taste). ATTENTION ALL: if you want to lose weight, travel to Australia! That will be the case for me upon returning to the states. Get excited, Mom! (I'm kidding of course...).

Our first little orientation meeting was last night but lasted no longer than 20 minutes, reason being everyone not being used to the time change. We couldn't go back to sleep because it was like only 5 PM here and we needed to try and work ourselves into the Sydney time. It was so hard for me to stay awake for those 4 hours . To pass the time, people played Spades... since there was not room for me at the table, I tried making coffee to keep myself awake, but pretty much I was doomed. I would sit down and almost fall over due to the overwhelming drowsy feeling that was taking over my body. Thanks to my team members, they kept me awake and I lasted to 9 PM (this was after our late night venture to the hot tub located on top of our apartment building). Two sleeping aid pills did the trick and I was in bed before I knew what hit me. Most of us, girls, woke up around 7 AM and went running around Hyde Park which was quite refreshing. Tomorrow we plan on running down to the harbor and through the Botanical Gardens. How weird is it that I'm going for a run in downtown Sydney... I mean, first off, I don't really run, and secondly, I can't believe I will be able to say, "Ah, no big deal, I just ran by the Sydney Opera House." I feel like I'm living a dream!

Today we had more orientation to help up learn a little more about the Aussie culture compared to our culture. The verse above was what Rich, our Aussie Campus Outreach orientation leader from Brisbane, considered the vision for what we are to do here. We have come to win souls for Christ, to break ourselves of what is comfortable and give our lives away to absolute strangers. I am so excited to see how the Lord uses each one of us... We were all placed on our specific teams for a reason, being called to specific people located here. I hope to be able to write to you all soon about our time on the campuses here... so far we have only really done orientation. Please be praying for revival here in Australia. There is a need for the Lord here because it is considered a very secular country, with the church culture falling apart. When the Spirit of the Lord is present, nothing can really stop His work or the plan that's to be carried out...

Stay tuned for more pictures as well as more updates on what's happening here in Sydney, Australia!

Interesting Australian Fact:
Tim Tam Slam: (definition) This is the act of using a tim tam biscuit to drink coffee, by biting off the opposite corners and then using it as a straw to suck up the coffee in your mug.